M. Stalin backs Nationalists

Stalin continued to back the Nationalist government with the idea of steering them to the left although Trotsky protested. After a slaughter of peasants by the Guomindang, Stalin began to switch his allegiance to the CCP. By August of 1927, the CCP had an army of 20,000. The break between the CCP and the Nationalists became wider and wider. Japan began to exert its might in occupying Manchuria and installing Puyi the "Last Emperor" as its head.